China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC), China's largest integrated oil-and-gas company, plans to buy 49 per cent holding in AO MangistauMunaiGaz for $10 billion from Kazakhstan's state-run KazMunaiGaz National Co, a CNPC official said on Monday.

MangistauMunaiGaz, which controls oil reserves estimated at 500 million barrels, has also been eyed by Russian and Indian energy companies in recent months.

The accord is expected to be signed on 15 April when Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev visits Beijing, the official said. Nazarbayev will visit Beijing before attending the Boao Forum, a regional economic summit held on the southern Chinese island of Hainan.

China is seeking to bolster its energy security by sealing long-term deals with neighboring states and reducing its reliance on maritime oil transportation routes.

The nation's oil imports climbed to a one-year high in March, according to customs data. So it makes sense to acquire assets because it's cheaper than buying from abroad.

Kazakhstan is the seccond biggest energy producer in the former Soviet Union.

The central Asian nation is seeking $10 billion in Chinese investments, while talks are under way with China's biggest oil company on the sale of a stake, Kazakh energy minister Sauat Mynbayev said on 6 April.

Kazakhstan received an estimated $21.1 billion in exploration and production investment last year, a 19 per cent increase on 2007, Mynbayev said in January. It holds 3.2 per cent of the world's proven oil reserves, according to BP Plc.

Russia, which agreed in February to supply China with oil for 20 years in return for $25 billion in credit, is in discussions with China for additional loans for natural gas supplies.
China secured similarly advantageous assurances in February, when it signed a long-term oil supply contract and pipeline deal with Russia worth $25 billion.

MangistauMunaiGaz's holdings include 36 oil and gas fields, of which 15 are currently under development. The company also owns a 58-per cent stake in the Pavlodar refinery

CNPC eyes $5 billion Canadian oil fields

CNPC is also reported to be initiating talks with Canada-based Suncor Energy and Petro-Canada to purchase two oil fields for $5 billion.

The oil fields are located in Syria and Libya, respectively. 

The spokesman of Suncor Energy said that Suncor will probably wait to discuss the oil field sales plan until after the firm completes its merger with Petro-Canada.

CNPC bid $443 million to acquire Verenex Energy Inc, a company based in Calgary, Canada that owns valuable oil assets in Libya, but was blocked by the African nation.

In another related movement, Royal Dutch Shell Plc  is in advanced talks with China's two biggest state-owned oil companies on a possible joint bid to develop the Kirkuk oil field in northern Iraq.

Shell, CNPC, and China Petrochemical Corp, the parent of China Petroleum & Chemical Corp, have yet to decide on equity stakes in the consortium.

Shell had offered CNPC a 15 per cent stake, but CNPC has sought more - around 20 per cent - he added.

The joint bid, if finalised, would mark China's latest efforts to tap Iraq's rich energy resources, after CNPC became the first foreign oil firm to enter into an investment deal with the new Iraqi government in its domestic oil industry since the 2003 US-led invasion.

In November last year, CNPC officially signed a $3 billion oil service contract with the Iraqi oil ministry to develop the Ahdab oil field in central Iraq.

Shell already has a joint venture with PetroChina that operates the Changbei natural gas field in northwestern China, which was pumping 10 million cubic meters of gas per day as of September last year.